Taiwan is being urged to fight Chinese propaganda by pushing its own message harder, a warning that is bad news for Beijing's influence campaigns but a challenge for a democracy uneasy about anything that looks like state messaging.

• NATO's strategic communications center says the biggest weakness of free societies is not recognizing they have an enemy; Latvia and NATO openly name Russia as one, and Taiwan should be just as clear about China.
• Authoritarian governments have spent heavily on global influence, and China's reach today would have been unthinkable 25 years ago, while democracies still spend far less to fight back.
• Platforms like TikTok are now part of the information environment, and if they are steered by a foreign power, democracies have to treat that as a serious threat.
• Some Taiwanese media outlets have become mouthpieces for Beijing, running biased, unchecked stories, so having many news outlets does not mean people get the truth.
• Hostile powers exploit existing social divisions; the damage is limited when governments respond quickly and credibly, and grows when they stay silent.

Outlook: Taiwan is expected to take a more active, Latvia-style approach to naming China as an adversary and filling the information space before Beijing does.